The present invention relates to a support mechanism for a floating section, for example, of a vehicle-mounted disc player provided for prevention of sound skipping due to possible vibrations of the vehicle in disc signal reproduction.
Recently, a disc player is used which uses a recording medium such as a compact disc or a miniature disc for acoustics or video recording/reproducing purposes. This disc player is provided with a turntable which turns a disc and a pickup which senses a signal from the rotating disc. The turntable and the pickup are supported on a chassis of the disc player.
When this type of disc player is mounted on a vehicle, the following trouble would rise. When signals from a disc are reproduced in the vehicle-mounted disc player, possible vibrations of the vehicle can be transmitted to the turntable and pickup. In this case, the disc would rapidly deviate from the pickup to thereby render the reproduced sound discontinuous.
In order to solve such trouble in the vehicle-mounted disc player, a floating section on which the turntable and pickup are mounted is supported by vibration dampers on the chassis of the disc player. According to this structure, vibrations transmitted from the vehicle to the chassis are absorbed by the vibration dampers and are difficult to be transmitted to the turntable and pickup. The vibration dampers used are made of thin flexible rubber to absorb vibrations incoming in every direction.
However, it is difficult to support the overall load of the floating section with vibration dampers of thin rubber alone. The vibration dampers might be left deformed due to the load of the floating section to thereby disable absorption of such vibrations. Thus, such vehicle-mounted disc player is provided with a floating section support mechanism made of spring means such as coil springs which are disposed so as extend vertically or in the direction of action of gravity. The coil springs are engaged at an upper end with the chassis and at a lower end with the floating section. According to such structure, the coil springs support the load of the floating section, so that the load of the floating section does not directly act on the vibration dampers to thereby prevent deformation of the dampers and impairment of the vibration absorbing function.
The position where such vehicle-mounted disc player is attached must be changed depending on the kind and size of the vehicle on which the disc player is mounted. Thus, the disc player can be installed so as to extend vertically or horizontally, which means in this specification and claims that the disc player is installed such that its bottom surface is in a vertical or horizontal plane, as the case may be. The coil springs as the supporting mechanism for the floating section must be disposed so as to extend vertically at all times to cancel the load of the floating section. Thus, even if the direction of installation (or the tilt of the bottom surface) of the disc player changes, the coil springs are required to be installed so as to extend vertically. Thus, the floating section support mechanism Is preferably capable of altering the direction of extension of the coil springs relative to the floating section. Such floating section support mechanism is conventionally proposed by Japanese utility model application Hei 1-130225, corresponding U.S. application Ser. No. 07/610,516 being filed on Nov. 8, 1990. The floating section support mechanism of this application will next be described with respect to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 11, a floating section 1 with a turntable, etc., is provided within a chassis S of the disc player. The floating section 1 is supported on the chassis S by support rods 41-44 protruding from the periphery of the floating section 1 into vibration dampers 21-24 on the chassis S. In FIG. 11, a first coil spring 61 is provided on the left-hand side of the floating section while a second and a third coil spring 62 and 63 are provided on the right-hand side of the floating section.
First, the first coil spring 61 is provided between a link 31 provided on the chassis S and an engagement member 11 provided on the floating section. That is, the link 31 taking the form of a slightly long plate is provided rotatable around a pivot 31 attached to the chassis S. An engagement member 31b protruding toward the floating section 1 is provided on the link 31. The coil spring 61 is engaged at opposite ends with the engagement member 31b of the link 31 and the engagement member 11 of the floating section 1. The turning range of the link 31 is limited by a stop mechanism to a range between a position where the coil spring 61 extends in the same direction as the chassis and a position where the coil spring 61 extends so as to be perpendicular to the chassis. The stop includes a protrusion 31c provided on the link 31 and inserted into an opening in the chassis S. The protrusion 31c abuts on an edge of the opening to limit the turning range of the link 31.
The second and third coil springs 62, 63 are provided between corresponding links 32, 33 provided on the floating section 1 and the chassis S. The floating section 1 is provided with pivots 32a, 33a to which the corresponding links 32, 33 are attached rotatable at one end. The links 32, 33 have corresponding engagement members 32b, 33b formed at the other end thereof. The chassis S has on a side thereof engagement members 12, 13 which correspond to the engagement members 32a, 33a, respectively, with the coil springs 62, 63 being engaged at opposite ends with the corresponding engagement members 12, 13 and with the corresponding engagement members 32b, 33b. Also, the links 32, 33 are provided with corresponding stops 32c, 33c which limit the turning range thereof.
In operation, as shown in FIG, 12, when the disc player is installed vertically, the link 31 is turned around the pivot 31a to and engaged at a position where the first coil spring 61 extends in the same direction as the floating section 1, as viewed in a side view. Although not shown, the link 32, 33 are similarly turned around the pivots 32a, 33a to positions where the second and third coil springs 62, 63, respectively, extend in the same direction as the floating section 1, as viewed in a side view. This causes all the coil springs 61-63 to be disposed so as to extend vertically, so that the load of the floating section 1 is supported by the coil springs 61-63.
When the disc player is installed horizontally, as shown in FIG. 13, the links 31-33 are turned to and engaged at positions where the respective coil springs 61-63 extend so as to traverse the floating section 1, as viewed in a side view. This causes all the coil springs 61-63 to be disposed so as to extend vertically, so that the load of the floating section 1 is supported by the coil springs 61-63.
However, the above conventional floating section support mechanism has the following drawbacks: First, the stops which limit the turning range of the links engage the links at opposite ends of the turning range. Thus, when the disc player is installed horizontally, the respective links 31-33 are engaged at opposite ends of the turning range. Thus, the coil springs 61-63 are disposed so as to extend vertically even if the load of the floating section 1 is applied to the coils 61-63. However, when the disc player is installed tilted (in many cases, at about 45 degrees) to the horizon or vertical, the links are positioned intermediate the turning range and hence the turning operation of the links 31-33 cannot be stopped by the stop to thereby render difficult the support of the floating section by the coil spring 61.
In order to cope with this situation, a mechanism is conceivable in which a link is turned along arcuate grooves provided in the chassis S and floating section 1 and corresponding to the turning range of the link, and fastened by screws to the chassis S and floating section 1 at positions where the coils are at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizon or vertical in the course of turning of the link along the grooves. However, with such mechanism, the fastening operation with screws is required and the positioning operation of the link is troublesome.
To further simplify this mechanism, published unexamined Japanese patent application Hei 4-362588 has proposed that part of a groove 100 which guides the link is provided with a plurality of recesses 101-104, as shown in FIG. 14. A guide 105 provided in the link is engaged in any one of the recesses 101-104. Simultaneously, the guide 105 is pulled by the action of the coil spring 106 to be engaged in any one of the recesses 101-104 to thereby fix the link at an intermediate angle, for example, of 45 degrees. However, since in the conventional technique the groove is wider at recesses 101-104 than other groove portions, the guide 105 is slipped off from the recess where the guide 105 is engaged to thereby disable the fixing of the link, undesirably.
Second, in order to support the floating section 1 within the chassis, the coil spring is required to be provided on each side of the floating section. However, it is troublesome to set all the coil springs so as to extend vertically, each time the attitude of the disc player is altered. Published unexamined Japanese patent application Hei 2-297993 discloses a mechanism in which two pairs of coil springs are provided on the corresponding right- and left-hand sides of the floating section 1 to adjust the angle of one pair of coil springs simultaneously. That is, as shown in FIG. 15, a pair of turning links 203, 204 with corresponding coil springs 201, 202 is coupled by a single coupling link 205. By moving the coupling link 205 or one of the links 203, 204, the angles of the coil springs 201 and 202 are adjusted.
This conventional mechanism does not provide a structure in which the changing angles of the coil springs are fixed at an intermediate position in the movement thereof. Even if the changing angles of the coil springs may be fixed at an intermediate position in the course of the movement of the coil springs by a combination of the above-mentioned other techniques, fastening the link with screws is troublesome or the angle of the coil springs would change, undesirably. Since in this conventional technique the coupling link 205 is movable both longitudinally and transversely thereof, the space in which the coupling link 205 moves is wide and the miniaturization of the disc player is hindered.